


A Terribly Difficult Task

by zarabithia



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Miscarriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-30
Updated: 2006-12-30
Packaged: 2019-05-19 22:08:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14882120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: A snippet in the life of Rory Harper, following the infamous "Do me a favor?/Don't Get Up" scene.





	A Terribly Difficult Task

The list of things that Rory Harper should have known and didn't until it was far too late was an uncomfortably long one.  
  
But all the bad choices - among them drugs, pretty Lantern boys, and rendezvous with minions of world-renown assassains- took a back seat to Rory's stupidity in overlooking the pregnancy signs that carrying Lian should have made her aware of.  
  
Hell, it wasn't as though she and Dick had been _careful_ the last time they'd had sex. Rory had been so desperate to grab onto the brief glimpse of the man that she'd been in love with since the age of thirteen that she had clung on for dear life. It had been so long since her one-time lover had _wanted_ her that Rory didn’t mind the callousness of his touch. . . Nor did she think to stop him long enough to take care of the birth control that fucking Grace hadn’t required.  
  
An unwanted. . . _no,_ an _unplanned_ pregnancy really shouldn’t have been a surprise.  
  
But a surprise it was, as Rory sat in her bathroom in the aftermath of a battle during which the man who’d had Dick’s face, but nothing else including and especially not his costume, had landed three harsh blows to Rory’s abdomen and chest to accentuate the command of "Don’t get up." She wondered if the World’s Second Greatest Detective had known what Rory herself had been too stupid to figure out . Maybe Dick’s blows had landed on her abdomen not because he couldn’t stand to hit her face, but because he’d seen an opportunity to correct a mistake and had taken it with the deadly accuracy that would have made his current mentor proud.  
  
In the safety of the bathroom, another wave of pain hit Rory’s already curled up form, and she bit hard into her bottom lip until the liquid that formed in her mouth matched the pool between her legs.  
  
When the pain passed, Rory finally reached for the communicator lying on the floor next to the discarded extra layers that hadn‘t done a damn bit of good.  
  
"Arsenal?" The voice on the other end wasn’t the sterile computer voice Oracle typically projected, but was instead the warm voice of a woman that fleetingly reminded Rory of Dinah‘s arms from a lifetime and several mistakes ago.  
  
Rory was grateful for that, as she tried to ignore the pain in order to answer. "I need . . ." So many ways to finish that sentence; so many things that she needed but couldn’t have. "I need to see a doctor," she said finally. "Don’t want to freak the kid out, though." Rory figured Oracle was smart enough to figure the rest as she shakily rose to her feet, ignoring the cramp that sliced through her as she stood.  
  
There was a brief pause on the other end as Oracle processed the request. "I’m sending Black Canary and an old family friend to your apartment. ETA thirty minutes."  
  
She knew better than to wonder out loud about Oracle's transportation methods, and couldn‘t really find it in herself to care anyway. "Thanks."  
  
Rory shut off the communicator and tried to feel badly that she once again had done something that was no doubt causing Dinah worry. In fact, contacting Oracle was probably a mistake, when she could have easily called Grace and gotten to the hospital just as fast. Maybe even faster. Rory chalked that particular bit of selfishness up to wanting Dinah close, no matter the personal toll it might take on the other woman.  
  
Rory added that error in judgment to the entirely too-lengthy list as she waited for Dinah to arrive.  



End file.
